Parents whose teenagers are due to attend a special disco tonight have been issued with a warning from Gardaí.
The well-run Fusion Ball in Kilkenny city is for second and third year secondary school students.
Though an alcohol-free event, it appears some of the attendees are being dropped off hours before the doors open and are meeting up to drink elsewhere.
Garda Andy Neill has told KCLR News; “This isn’t acceptable and it is not what the organisers want, they don’t want kids arriving intoxicated and we find it incredibly challenging to deal with, you are talking literally groups of 5 or 600 teenagers who are moving en masse from The Parade to The Canal to the old library, a lot with drink on board and really exposing themselves to a huge amount of danger”.
He adds; “A drunk person is far more likely to be assaulted or assault someone, to be sexually assaulted or sexually assault someone else, to have an accident, to have a fall so what we’d like to stress is the doors of this event open at 8:15pm, that’s not 5pm, that’s 6pm, that’s not 7pm, that’s not 7:30pm, the doors of the venue open at 8:15pm and parents should be organising to get their kids into town for this”.
